The global industrial extended reality (XR) market is expected to reach $60 billion by 2030, findings from ABI Research revealed this week.
ABI’s Enterprise and Industrial XR Training report found that enterprises have been increasingly tapping virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) devices over the last five years. Analysts predict that more than 16 million industrial XR devices will ship in 2027 at current adoption rates.
Figures cited major use cases for device implementation, such as training, workflow instruction, and remote guidance. The former has remained a major vertical for enterprise XR adoption, driving most of the growth in the industry.
Additionally, this is expected to create over $60 billion USD in global revenue by 2030, with XR training and instruction topping the list.
Comments on Industrial XR Growth
Eric Abbruzzese, Research Director, ABI Research, explained that training had become “the latest focus for enterprises.” He added that further use cases like workflow instruction and remote assistance were driving mass adoption of immersive technologies across enterprises.
Abbruzzese continued,
“XR training deployments show significant improvements in key performance metrics like retention and repeat training while also improving user experience and satisfaction with the content. Outside of some upfront content creation needs, XR training can deliver value quickly and over time”
According to the report, XR training required “less training time” compared to traditional training methodologies, and “significantly” improved retention and recollection rates.
Additionally, training techniques were “more flexible in terms of location and timing.” Furthermore, instructors could create bespoke, tailored content for learners at cheaper rates than typical training facilities.
Finally, the report noted that XR training operated at scale, with “infinitely repeatable and scalable” efficacy.
The report read:
“This can save not only active training time but also reduce training revisits. Any time a traditionally hands-on training experience can be done with XR, there can again be significant cost savings avoiding wasted processes and products. Training in hazardous environments can also be done in XR first, keeping workers safe and increasing confidence once on site, thanks to familiarity gained with XR”
Finally, Abbruzesse concluded that industrial markets recognised ‘ complex operations and pitfalls’ linked to “downtime cost, expert travel costs, scrap and error rates, and more.”
He said: “These pitfalls can be lessened or avoided completely by supplementing or replacing existing training methods with XR. While content creation does take time and resources, once a solution is built, the value is undeniable.”
Mobilising the Industry for Immersive Solutions
Companies mentioned in the industrial XR space included immersive firms StriVR, Pixo, ARuVR, Taqtile, and many others. These companies were creating forward-thinking solutions at scale to boost the XR industrial training market.
XR Today documents the rapid adoption of use cases and solutions from companies such as Lenovo, Moth+Flame, ENGAGE XR, Altoura, GigXR, and CGS.
Conversely, Industrial XR solutions are gaining adoption from massive collaborative platforms. NVIDIA is leading the charge on this with its Omniverse and digital twin solution platform. Lenovo is facilitating device-agnostic interoperability with its ThinkReality solution and Varjo with its Teleport and Reality Cloud platforms.
Along with NVIDIA, Unity and Epic Games, the world’s largest gaming engines, have also joined efforts to build the industrial metaverse.
Their gaming technologies have rapidly accelerated the development of crucial digital twins and open-source digital assets. This builds on the industrial metaverse by delivering greater interoperability and support for developers across verticals.
HTC VIVE unveiled enterprise-grade hardware and platforms on Thursday via its XR Elite Business Edition and Business+ solutions. Conversely, Apple has entered the XR scene with a potential enterprise-focused Vision Pro headsets. The big reveal rocked the industry following Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
Meta Platforms has become instrumental in deploying its Quest series of headsets for enterprise use. It has also joined organisational initiatives to upskill global workforces. Accenture has also extensively documented the benefits of XR technologies for boosting time-to-market production cycles for industries.
Finally, Qualcomm remains instrumental in organising the global XR industry by boosting interoperability among devices. Its Snapdragon processor has created a platform for testing and deploying Snapdragon Spaces-backed applications. This has helped the market to flourish for hardware manufacturers and developers, facilitating growth.
Precedence Research Predictions for Industrial XR
Numerous reports have documented the rise of immersive enterprise solutions regarding the XR industrial market. For example, Precedence Research figures found that the global XR market would top $345.9 billion USD by 2030.
Compound annual growth rates (CAGR) for the same period would reach 33.09 percent from 2022 to 2030, it added. Furthermore, the report noted that augmented reality (AR) already accounted for 55 percent of global markets.
Verticals cited by the research included entertainment, gaming, education, defence, and training, with many firms continuing to innovate technologies post-COVID.
Companies gained the benefits of immersive technologies during national pandemic lockdowns. This led to massive savings, expedited time-to-market processes, and the rapid upskilling of workforces.
Healthcare has become a massive benefactor for XR technologies, namely with the debut of the Microsoft HoloLens 2 and, most recently, Magic Leap 2. These immersive devices are certified for medical use and can offer instant access to CT and MRI scans, patient data, and collaborative tools.
This has greatly improved patient diagnosis, allowing doctors to speed up the number of patients consulted each day compared to traditional processes.
Finally, global telecoms and telcos also joined in efforts to develop effective XR infrastructure by rolling out 5G cloud and edge computing 5G networks. These have become pivotal in facilitating XR bandwidth requirements for the ever-increasing demands of the XR-backed consumer and enterprise markets.
